• The contact tracers are the foot soldiers in the battle vs the spread of COVID.
• Households resent the presence of contact tracers at their gates for fear of discrimination from neighbors.
• Every day, they face obstacles of rudeness, insults, even dog bites and cat scratches.
• The job of contact tracing is daunting; one has to talk to each person a COVID-positive person had contact with in the last 14 days.

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Like soldiers on a dangerous mission, the contact tracers are up at dawn to assemble before they go out to battle a seeming invincible and invisible enemy – the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19).

But unlike the battle scarred and highly-trained soldiers, the group of contact tracers who converged at the QCX Headquarters at 6 a.m. that morning looked more like members of a choir, a cheering squad, or just regular young people out to party.

Exchanging pleasantries and smiles, they take their places in the crowd of 140 youngsters before they board vehicles that will take them to the areas in the six districts of Quezon City where they have been assigned to do contact tracing duties.

Their youth belie the importance of the task they carry on their shoulders – to trace the people who had been in contact with a person recently tested to be positive for COVID-19. The job is not easy and it is dangerous.

To protect themselves, they wear personal protective equipment (PPE) – face mask, face shield, and when they have to do swab tests they wear a PPE garment.

What is the job all about?

The job of tracing all the people a COVID-positive patient had come into contact with in the last two weeks is daunting. Of course, the names are provided by the patient but tracking them down and asking them to answer the questions is an “extreme challenge,” said District 4 Field Operation Chief Melvin Abrigo Jr.

Why do you continue to do this, we asked him. His reply: “For public service and love of country.”

First, Abrigo narrated the extreme challenges the contact tracers face in tracking down the target household in a specific barangay where the reported COVID-19 positive patient stays.

Many of the persons they interview are hesitant to even talk to them, he said.

Abrigo said that getting the persons in the list to talk becomes easier if the barangay official with them has persuasive skills to convince the household members, especially the uncooperative ones, to accede to the protocol.

The contact tracers are trained to ask relevant questions that can change the cynical demeanor of the uncooperative close contacts of the COVID-positive patient.

Occupational hazards

Naturally, there are many occupational hazards in this job, aside from the risk of getting infected by the virus. Other hazards are the violent reactions of subjects, dogs that bite, and pet cats that scratch.

Even with their training on how to handle difficult and emotional subjects, Abrigo said that sometimes it is very difficult to control one’s emotion and to exercise calmness.

They have faced humiliation in many degrees, Abrigo said. “There were subjects who hurled insults and vulgar words at us. But so far, we have not experienced any physical contact from wild subjects, he said, “except a case of a bite from a stray dog and scratches from a cat.”

The contact tracers work between 8 to 12 hours with no quota on the minimum number of cases to interview in a day. But Abrigo said that they always try to be very thorough because they know that laxity will only make things worse and they have to go and trace more people in the succeeding days.

Although he radiates pride in what he does as a frontliner in this battle to stop the pandemic, Abrigo feels the absence of his family. “Being away from your family for a very long time is really a supreme sacrifice. I only saw my kid once since March as I chose to stay in the “Heal As One Dorm’’ inside the QCMC to avoid the risk of infecting my family with the virus.”

Why do you continue to do this, we asked him. His reply: “For public service and love of country.”

We also interviewed two extraordinary members of this team -- Jobelle Pamugas and Glizel Gascon, both registered medical technologists. Pamugas is also a law student who manages to find time to study even with her six-day workweek.

Both are fully aware of the dangers in their jobs and are under contract up to December 31.

Pamugas said it is a fascination for the wonders of epidemiology and her previous work in the field of microbiology that holds her to this job, despite her parents constant request for her to find another job. She hopes to be re-hired after her contract ends this year.

In contrast, Gascon was totally unaware of what the job of contact tracer would involve. She said she literally fell off her chair during the orientation when she learned that the contract tracers would interview COVID-positive patients, which is far from simply examining the swab samples in the laboratory.

After her parents learned of her job, Gascon said they called everyday to check on her and to beg her to look for a less dangerous job.

But Gascon said there is something holding her back, describing the feeling of satisfaction of being able to serve the country as a frontliner in these trying times. “Nationalism,” she calls it.

But not all in her team have stayed on. Gascon said she understood the decision of the others to quit when the number of COVID-19 cases surged. They gave in to family pressure, she said.

Harrowing experiences

Not every day gives that feeling of having helped someone, though, Gascon said. She recalled a harrowing experience in Barangay Balong-Bato where she scampered out of danger when a man appeared looking very angry at the presence of contact tracers at his gate.

Later, the contact tracing team received information that the man was a drug addict and had just been released from a rehabilitation center. He was also visibly upset because his father had died of COVID-19 a few months before the incident.

In another incident, Pamugas narrated being demoralized after a woman gave her a tongue-lashing and even expletives, challenging her knowledge as a medical technologist. In the presence of the barangay officials, the woman, who was a teacher, compared Pamagas’ credentials to hers (a teacher), and criticized the details of the DOH guidelines on COVID-19.

According to them, most household members resent a visit from contact tracers for fear of discrimination from neighbors, even if they all turn out negative.

Gascon explained that all visits are coordinated by the barangay officers. Even before a visit is made, a contact tracer will call the intended subject to verify the address and inform the family when a medical team will be at their place.

What is the QC-X

The “command center” or the QC-X of the contact tracers is in a building inside the Quezon Memorial Circle. It is the central office of the Quezon City Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit (QCESU) where the various district officers collate the contact tracing data from the 142 barangays in the city’s six districts.

The information, particularly the number of active cases and deaths, are collected and will be the basis of a decision to assign more contact tracers at a certain area where active COVID-19 cases are more prevalent.

Additional contact tracers

With the flattening of the curve, Pamugas and Gascon acknowledged the need to hire more contact tracers to contain the transmission of COVID-19.

The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) has extended the September 23 deadline for the hiring of 50,000 more contact tracers until the vacancies are filled up.

With the COVID-19 pandemic affecting the country’s economy, DILG Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya said that the hiring priorities will be given to contractual personnel whose employment contracts were not renewed, Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) whose employment were disrupted, local employees whose service have been recently terminated, and Barangay Health Workers.

Qualifications in the hiring of contact tracers

Malaya said the applicant must have a Bachelor’s degree or college level in an allied medical course or criminology course.

Aspirants must also be skilled in data gathering, research and documentation, able to interview COVID-19 cases and close contacts in order to gather data, posses the ability to advocate public health education messages, and have investigative capability.

In the absence of degree holders for allied medical and criminology courses or college level applicants, Malaya noted the DILG has the option to consider hiring graduates or college level aspirants of any course.

Malaya said applicants are required to submit an application letter, personal data sheet, National Bureau of Investigation clearance, diploma or transcript of record, and drug test result, to the nearest DILG provincial or city field office.